Daily Alert Archives

The Problem with Opposing Israel's "Occupation"

(JNS-Israel Hayom) Jonathan S. Tobin - A two-state solution that would be predicated on Israel's leaving the West Bank is a position endorsed by only a minority of Israelis under the current circumstances. Most Israelis think that following that advice would be a rerun of Ariel Sharon's 2005 experiment in which he withdrew every soldier, settler, and settlement from Gaza - only to see the creation of a terrorist state on their country's southern border. Israeli voters have made it clear that replicating that disaster in the larger and more strategically important West Bank would be insane. When Israel's foes say "occupation," they don't mean a two-state solution that would create a peaceful Palestinian state alongside Israel. To the contrary, when anti-Zionists and most Palestinians say they want to end the occupation or speak of justice for the Palestinians, they're talking about a "one-state solution" in which the one Jewish state on the planet is eliminated. As far as the Palestinian Authority's official media and education system are concerned, Tel Aviv and Haifa, let alone Jerusalem, are every bit as "occupied" by the Jews as the most remote hilltop settlement in the West Bank. The reason why a Palestinian state in the West Bank doesn't already exist is because the PA has repeatedly rejected Israeli offers that would have given them one. These refusals centered on the Palestinian leadership's fear of being branded as traitors for agreeing to any pact that would recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish state within any borders. The same is true for complaints about the checkpoints and the security fence that Palestinians say make their lives miserable. They only exist because of the carnage that the Palestinians unleashed on Israelis during the Second Intifada, in which they answered a peace offer with a terrorist war of attrition. While the status quo in the West Bank isn't ideal for either side, the obstacle to peace remains the Palestinians' futile clinging to their fantasy of occupying all of Israel. Americans should be wary of being lured into statements opposing "occupation." What it really does is fuel the intransigence that makes peace impossible.
2019-07-15 00:00:00
Full Article